Sheridan v. Forsee
Sheridan v. Forsee
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff’s petition contains six counts; he took a nonsuit on the last, and on the trial recovered on the other five. The .first count is as follows:
*497 “Plaintiff for a canse of action states that on or about the fifth day of May, 1900, the defendant, Zeilda Forsee, was the owner of the building and storerooms known as 416 Edmond street in the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, and at said time the plaintiff was the tenant of said defendant and occupied as said tenant the storeroom in said building and conducted a fancy grocery store therein, and that over said storeroom, and in the same building there were portions of said building separate and apart from said storeroom, over which said defendant-had the exclusive control and possession and which said separate portions of said building the plaintiff had no interest in, or control over.
“It became at said time and was the duty of the defendant to use that portion of said building over which she had exclusive control, so as not to injure plaintiff’s business and property located in said storeroom, but wholly disregarding her duties in the premises, the defendant carelessly and negligently permitted a large volume of water to be negligently collected together and accumulated and to overflow from certain water-closets and basins therein located and above said storeroom, and by reason thereof the water came through the ceiling of said storeroom, and .together with the plaster thereon fell upon plaintiff’s, goods, wares and merchandise located in said storeroom and damaged the same, and seventy gallons of whiskey of the value of $140, and 120 gallons of wine of the value of $96 were wholly and totally ruined and destroyed and rendered unfit for any use whatever, and also- by reason thereof plaintiff’s business was damaged in the sum of $50. "Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment,” etc.
The other counts are similar, stating different claims for damages. The answer was a general denial.
Generally speaking, the uncontroverted facts were, that defendant was the owner of a certain building in St. Joseph, Missouri, and that plaintiff at the times men
All of plaintiff’s evidence stood uncontradicted as defendant offered no testimony whatever.
At the close of plaintiff’s evidence defendant, through her counsel, made the following announcement: “We desire to file a demurrer to each count in the peti
The defendant asked no instructions. The court gave four on the part of the plaintiff, of which number one is three printed pages in length. There are many criticisms of this instruction upon the part of defendant. With much precision it tells the jury the issue on the five counts of the petition and then directs the jury before they can find for the plaintiff they must first find that the plaintiff was the tenant of the storeroom in question and that defendant was the owner of the same and in control of the floor next above, and that defendant negligently and carelessly permitted water to accumulate and overflow and damage plaintiff’s goods.
One- of the criticisms of this" instruction is that it assumes the facts to he true. We do not think so, and if it did it would not matter as the facts were practically uncontradicted.
But objection is made specifically to that part which refers to the third and fifth counts of the petition. The evidence was that the overflow of water mentioned in said two counts and which damaged plaintiff as therein set out occurred in apartments occupied and under the control of defendant’s tenants. The objection is well taken, as it is the law of this State that a landlord is not liable for the negligence of his tenant. Ward v. Fagin, 101 Mo. 669; Gordon v. Peltzer, 56 Mo. App. 599.
All other objections to instructions and admission of evidence are purely technical; and as the finding on three of the counts is for the right party we will not reverse the cause'for the grounds stated.
The cause is reversed and remanded, however, unless plaintiff within fifteen days enters a remittitur for six dollars and thirteen cents ($6.13) on the third and thirteen dollars and eighty-five cents ($13.85) on the. fifth count of his petition, on which it will he affirmed.
070rehearing
ON REHEARING,
The appellant calls attention to the following paragraph in the opinion herein,, wherein the court misconceived the facts of the record, viz.': “At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, defendant, through her counsel, made the following announcement: ‘We desire to file a demurrer to each count in the petition. ’ These demurrers were by the court overruled, and as they are not presented in the abstract we can not know specifically what they contained. But if they were what counsel named them, -they were properly overruled for one controlling reason at least, that they should have been filed and acted upon before the case was tried.” It seems that the papers were not demurrers to the different counts of the petition, but demurrers to the evidence on the different counts. We confess to having been mistaken in the matter, but we were led to commit the error, because of said misnomer.
It can make no difference, however, in the result, as the' opinion finds that all of said counts were sustained by evidence except as to the third and fifth.
The motion is overruled.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.